Leagues of Inner Mongolia

Leagues Of Inner Mongolia

A league (Mongolian: (ᠠᠶᠢᠮᠠᠭ) ayimaγ or, historically, čiγulγan; Chinese: 盟, pinyin: méng) is an administrative unit in Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China.

Leagues are the prefectures of Inner Mongolia. The name comes from a kind of ancient Mongolian administrative unit used during the Qing Dynasty in Mongolia. To preempt any sense of Mongolian unity or solidarity, the Qing Dynasty executed divide and rule policies in which Mongolian Banners (county level regions) were separated from each other. Leagues had no true ruler-ship, they only had conventional assemblies consisting of banners. During the ROC era, the leagues had a status equivalent to provinces. Leagues contain banners, equivalent to counties.

After the establishment of the provincial level Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1947, leagues of Inner Mongolia became equal to prefectures in other provinces and autonomous regions. The governments of the league, (Chinese: 行政公署; pinyin: xíngzhènggōngshǔ), is the administrative branch office dispatched by People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The leader of the league's government, titled as league leader (Chinese: 盟长; pinyin: méngzhǎng), is appointed by People's Government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. So are deputy leaders of leagues. Instead of local level of People's Congress, league's working commissions of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region are detached and supervise the league's governments, but can not elect or dismiss league's government officials. In such a way, the league's working committee of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is instead of league's committee of CPPCC.

Just like prefectures, most leagues have been replaced by prefecture-level cities. There are only 3 leagues remaining in Inner Mongolia.

Leagues have existed since the Qing Dynasty as a level of government. The head of a league was chosen from jasagh or sula of the banners belonging to it. The original six leagues were Jirim, Juuuda, Josutu, Xilingol, Ulanqab, and Yekejuu (Ikhjuu). More were added in the subsequent centuries.

Today, leagues belong to the prefecture level of the Chinese administrative hierarchy. Of the 9 leagues that existed in the late 1970s, 6 have now been reorganized into prefecture-level cities.